Walgreen's Almost Killed My Husband

If you have any sort of medical condition that requires regular prescription medication, you've probably fallen into the same rut we have. You pick up your prescriptions and start filling your little pill minder so you remember to take those daily meds. Do you read the label on your prescriptions every time you refill them? 

We made a horrifying discovery in September as we went to refill one of my husband's medications. I have a cute little app on my iPhone that lets me scan in the refills - quick, easy, painless.  When we went to pick up the medication, one prescription was missing.  They said they didn't receive the refill request.  After a brief wait, the missing prescription was refilled and we went home. As my hubby looked over his prescription bottles, he noticed that the one we had the refill glitch with was a prescription for someone else. Instead of his crucial diabetes medication, we discovered he had been taking a prescription analgesic over the past month. 

How on earth did someone else's prescription end up in our possession? Our local Walgreens bags multiple prescriptions for the same person after they are filled/refilled and then place the bag on the shelf until the patient comes to pick it up. When you show up to claim your medications, the pharmacy tech finds the bag with your name on it, processes your insurance and payment, and then hands it over. The bags are stapled shut with the information and receipt stapled to the front and nobody bothers to doublecheck the contents.

We immediately returned to Walgreens and asked to talk to the pharmacist. This was a huge error! My husband was without a crucial medication for a month, putting his life in danger.  In addition, some person out there had been given a medication that would lower her blood sugar and could have killed her.  The pharmacist took the prescription bottle from us and promised us that the head pharmacist (Jeremy) would research the situation and would contact us.  Someone named David called from Walgreens on September 30 to ask a few more questions and to say that Jeremy would contact us.  Unfortunately, that was the last we heard from "The Pharmacy America Trusts."

A pharmacy error endangered the lives of two different people and Walgreens has done nothing about it. Did they even fill out the required paperwork?  Did they try to contact the person who received my husband's prescription? We, along with our insurance, paid for a medication that was never received.  Isn't that fraud?  

I wasn't going to blog about the situation, but I think it's important for you all to be aware of the kind of dangers that exist in some of the most everyday activities. Do you trust your pharmacy?  Are you reading your medication labels?  Don't let this happen to you!